MINSTER — Everybody is a bit German this weekend in the Auglaize County village of Minster.
Oktoberfest got underway Friday with plenty of activities.
Saturday night the streets were filled with people dressed in German attire.
Of course that means plenty of German beer and beer-related fun activities.
“The first one was the beer tray relay where you have four members on your team and they set up an obstacle course and you have to carry a tray of beer doing that through this obstacle course then it’s timed and then at the end they weigh your cups and if you have any spillage they add so many minutes,” said Vern Wente, president of Oktoberfest.
“The jug hoist … we got that from Cincinnati’s Oktoberfest. They have what they call mug hoists. Since we serve beer in jugs we decided to just go ahead with the jug hoist,” he said.
So how did Oktoberfest begin in Minster?
“Back in 1975, there was a group that wanted to develop something for the organizations in the community to make some money, so they come up with the Oktoberfest because a couple guys on the Jaycees at that time they seen an Oktoberfest in another town and so they decided to start this, so here we are after 43 years,” he said.
Various community organizations benefit from Oktoberfest.
“They put out their various food booths. They sell any kind of German food. They get their profits. What the Oktoberfest does, they’ll take a percentage for their operating expenses,” he said.
The event just keeps on growing each year.
“This is bigger than I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Nobody dreamed it would be as big as what it is.”
Obviously the Oktoberfest success can be attributed to people who have been here before.
“There’s a lot of Minster kids that go away to college and they’ll bring four or five college friends with them and they’ll love it so much they’ll keep coming on their own,” he said.
And they couldn’t have asked for better weather.
“We had a string of about five years where we had rain at least one night but it’s beautiful this weekend,” he said.
The highlight on Sunday is the big Oktoberfest Parade, which begins at 2 p.m.
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